ELECTION 2014

Tea Party claims big win

Republican primary goes down to wire

Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at "CNN Headline News," three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. His most recent book is "Capitol Crime: Washington's cover-up of the Killing of Miriam Carey." He also is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "How to Write Television News."

“We can’t have six more years of the status quo,” said McDaniel, explaining before primary night why he was trying to dethrone his fellow Republican. “I am not going to Washington, D.C., to be a member of the cocktail circuit or to make backroom deals. I’m going up there to fight and defend the Constitution.”

The race had been marked by a bizarre scandal in which a McDaniel supporter allegedly entered a nursing home to photograph Cochran’s wife, who suffers from dementia, and used the image in a video to attack the incumbent.

However, the incident apparently didn’t hurt the challenger. In fact, Harper Polling believed Cochran’s attempt to capitalize on the incident energized McDaniel’s base.

Iowa

Even before the election, the tea party already had a winner in the Hawkeye State. So did the establishment GOP.

She’s the same person.

In a race against four other candidates, state Sen. Joni Ernst won the party nomination with a massive margin.

After trailing by double-digits, polls showed Lonegan in a dead-heat with GOP establishment candidate Tom MacArthur.

But in the actual voting, McArthur easily won the nomination with 59.7 percent of the vote to Lonegan’s 40.3 percent.

Democrats apparently hoped Lonegan would win, thinking it would help their certain nominee, Burlington County Freeholder Aimee Belgard, in the race to replace outgoing GOP congressman Jon Runyan.

Montana

Republicans saw a chance to pick up a Senate seat in Montana after long-serving Democrat Sen. Max Baucus resigned to become U.S. ambassador to China.

Democrat Sen. John Walsh was appointed to the seat in February and won his party’s nomination against two primary challengers, rancher Dirk Adams and former Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger.

His opponent will be Republican Rep. Steve Daines, who crushed two primary opponents by taking 85 percent of the vote.

Daines is not easily pegged as conservative or establishment GOP.

He is supported by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Last fall, Daines voted with conservatives as Democrats let the government shut down, but then he voted to end the shutdown.

“The consistent theme that I heard all over the state, whether in eastern Montana or western Montana, is the intrusive overreach of the federal government into our lives in Montana,” Daines has said.

California

Tea party-backed state Rep. Tim Donnelly conceded to former Bush administration treasury official Neel Kashkari, who will be the GOP candidate to face Democratic incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall.

In California’s first-ever “open” ballot, where voters from any party can cast ballots for any candidate, Kashkari garnered 18 percent to Donnelly’s 15 percent.

Brown finished with 55 percent after barely bothering to campaign, and is going for an unprecedented fourth term in his second time around as the state’s chief executive.

A glimmer of hope for the GOP in the Golden State was evidenced by a surprising result in the battle for Beverly Hills, as a Republican came out on top of a crowded field in one of the most liberal districts in the nation.

D.C.-fixture Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., spent a mind-boggling 40 years representing some of the most expensive real estate in the world in California’s 33rd Congressional District that includes Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Bel Air, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades.

But Republican Elan Carr was the top vote-getter to replace him, among a field of 18 candidates.

Carr got 21.5 percent of the vote and will face Democratic state Sen. Ted Lieu, who received 19 percent, in the November election.

Carr may have been helped by both strong ties to Israel and a large field of Democrats splitting the vote among themselves.

In addition to the new-age spiritual healer, a public radio host, a sports executive and a television producer were all in the running.

California is also where Sandra Fluke is trying to make a name for herself, other than as the object of Rush Limbaugh’s ire.

She now lives in West Hollywood and will face a fellow Democrat in a runoff for a seat in the state Senate.

Listed on the ballot as a “social justice” attorney, Fluke became a brief sensation in liberal circles as a law student after the radio host joked she was a “slut” for testifying before Congress that the government should pay for inexpensive and widely available birth control as part of Obamacare.

Limbaugh felt obliged to apologize and Fluke soon disappeared from the media’s radar.

She faced six opponents in another pricey district that includes Santa Monica, as well as Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades.

Fluke was supported by Gloria Steinem and California NOW.

Finally, California also featured a bid for state attorney general by lawyer Orly Taitz, who made a name for herself questioning the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate.

She finished second-to-last in a field of seven candidates, as Democratic incumbent Kamala Harris won with 53 percent of the vote.

Alabama

Republican Gov. Robert Bentley, who was running for a second term, won the Republican gubernatorial primary in Alabama, with a 10-to-1 victory over his opponents.